Available to the general public...yet driver says it not?

[bussnapperwm]

Has anyone had it happen to them before? Using a bus that is a school/works origin service which the company advertises on their website as available to get general public, charges fares to the general public, but the driver doesn't like picking up the general public as "they'll get in trouble for doing it" or "it's not as it's a school/works service"?

Even though its registered with VOSA as a service

 

[carlberry]

Has anyone had it happen to them before? Using a bus that is a school/works origin service which the company advertises on their website as available to get general public, the bus destination display advertises it as available to the general public, charges fares to the general public, but the driver doesn't like picking up the general public as "they'll get in trouble for doing it" or "it's not as it's a school/works service"?

Without wishing to typecast (too much) I suspect most drivers would use the same excuses if they thought they'd get away with it!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Worth reporting that to the Traffic Commissioners etc if that happens. They could be made (quite rightly) to repay the illegitimately-obtained BSOG.

 

[Harpers Tate]

My idea of hell - being on a school bus service. Can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would choose to do so.......

 

[bussnapperwm]

My idea of hell - being on a school bus service. Can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would choose to do so.......

Sometimes they throw up some unusual workings, like early tridents/other non frontline stuff, or go closer to a place of work enroute that would otherwise require a change of bus if a "normal" service was used, or in my case today, it was just convenient timings after an appointment and meant I could nip to the bank instead of waiting 10 minutes more for the normal bus and possibly miss the bank.

 

[Mwanesh]

How often does it run .

 

[Andyh82]

My idea of hell - being on a school bus service. Can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would choose to do so.......

Probably because they are legally allowed to be, so will make a point and attempt to do so

 

[Busaholic]

There are 'enthusiasts' who'll attempt to ride on every available bus service of a particular operator, sometimes full route too: I hasten to add that's never applied to me. There are also some parts of the country, especially in rural areas, where it could be school bus or nothing to those without their own transport. I'm afraid it's all down to driver training: the ignorance about rover ticket availability, for instance, that one reads about is appalling.

 

[Deerfold]

There are various "school" services running past my house. If one is the next bus coming, I'd like to catch it. Some of them go past the town centre and use a stop that is sometimes more useful than the bus station. I'm also some way from the schools they serve so there's rarely many children on them.
However the operator seems to like changing which are registered as public bus services and which are school only.

The times are here. There's no indication that some of them are not open to the public.

The operator has, in the last week, added notes on which ones are not open to the public. Before that you had the combined timetable for the 440/941/943 and nothing to say one of the routes was open to the general public and the other two aren't.

 

[Typhoon]

Without wishing to typecast (too much) I suspect most drivers would use the same excuses if they thought they'd get away with it!

Can I offer an exception? In our area there is a degree of inconsistency about whether you can catch a school bus so when I saw a school bus approaching I didn't hail it, it stopped and the driver asked where I was going and told be to get on board, which he repeated everywhere where someone was waiting. Apparently the school had closed at lunch time and rather than head back empty, he tried to help waiting passengers out by letting them travel.
Having said that, much of the time drivers stop short of the bus stop to make sure you can't get on.

 

[Busaholic]

In my area First say anyone can use their school/college routes, and I believe you can find the timetables if you search. I do know, though, that in at least one case where a regular route gets a small extension to a college in the afternoon, which could provide a useful crosstown connection otherwise unavailable drivers are reluctant to allow it even though, in that direction, there are no students travelling.

 

[alex397]

The Stagecoach South East drivers all seem well aware that the general public are allowed on all their routes. There are some routes which almost shadow 'ordinary' bus routes, or which go down busy corridors (e.g Sturry Road in Canterbury, or Margate-Birchington), where I often see the general public on schoolday routes. Sometimes passengers might not even realise its a schoolday service, e.g. if the destination is just 'Canterbury' or 'Minnis Bay' with the route number - the only clue being the 900-series route number.

Generally speaking, its probably much easier to board a public registered schoolday bus if its run by a 'group' operator rather than an independent. Although there are probably many exceptions to that rule! I've heard of some being refused travel on TfL school routes, for example.

 

[_toommm_]

Since the collapse of BrightBus in South Yorkshire, a lot of the school buses have been incorporated into normal services. It's a shame as on a route like the 26(a) in Sheffield, you can't have bigger than a Dart/E200 due to the roads it serves, but it has to serve a busy comprehensive school.

 

[LancasterRed]

The bit that catches me is where Google Maps displays the services as potential routes to my destination. Now this isn't a problem in and around Lancashire because I know them but when out of the area it can cause problems from time to time.

 

[asb]

I've had that a few times in years gone by, normally on schools buses where a lot of drivers had in their head "this is a school bus and therefore only carries school kids" which was presumably due to a lack of training mixed with assumption from the driver. The worst was when I was trying to get home from school in the afternoons and the town services had gone to pot so was waiting for ages, and all the buses from the Sixth Form College up the road just sailed past, even though they weren't limited stop.

 

[embers25]

In Exeter most drivers of the special services to St Peter's School try every argument in the book before finally caving and letting you board, despite the bus timetables saying nowhere that they are school only. What's worse is when the local bus arrives too full of other school kids that it can't pick up and the St Peters bus still tries to refuse travel. A common excuse is safeguarding which is ludicrous given numerous school children travel by regular bus every day. The only issue with using them is that they are fixed fare, regardless of distance so if paying a fare it will often be higher but to those with passes that is irrelevant.

 

[175mph]

In Scunthorpe during college term timr, there are three routes which are all numbered 360, and go from the colleges to the town centre, then up Frodingham Road onwards towards the villages, one terminates at Winterton, one terminates at Barton and one at East Halton, and on Frodingham Road, despite the timetable listing the routes as public routes, and there still being plenty of space on the buses, they often go straight past anyone attempting to board them.

One driver told me they definitely are open to the public, but they try and discourage the use of them due to the 350 route serving Winterton and Barton.

 

[randyrippley]

works the other way sometimes.......a few years back I was picked up at Garstang by a Stagecoach service taking boys from Lancaster Grammar school to Preston: the two week old Enviro 400 on service 40 running in front had had its windscreen knocked out by a pheasant around Forton. Apparently the entire screen collapsed into the cab.
I was initially grateful to the driver.............but by the time we arrived at Preston I wished he'd driven past: I'd forgotten how loud kids can be.
Interesting hypothetical question: would the driver of the parallel service for the Girls Grammar School have stopped???